Redlands Christian Migrant Association

Redlands Christian Migrant Association creates and fosters opportunities for the children of migrant and other low-income rural families to maximize the choices in their lives.

• The Redlands Christian Migrant Association is a non-profit, non-sectarian organization dedicated to providing high quality child development services to farmworker families and other rural low-income families in centers, family day care homes, after school dropout prevention programs, and Charter Schools.

• RCMA was founded in 1965 in the Redlands area of South Dade County primarily through the efforts of the Mennonite Church.

• The goal of all RCMA programs is to enable the children and families we serve to participate fully in the same opportunities for education, health, and social development that other Florida families enjoy.

• RCMA strongly advocates for parent involvement in its programs and has been a source of encouragement to the farmworkers and other members of the communities we serve. Today, 85% of staff members of the organization represent the communities we serve.

• The organization that begun with 75 children in two child care centers now serves more than 8,000 children in over 85 centers (21 counties) and programs throughout the vast rural areas of Florida. We also operate two charter schools, one in Hillsborough County and one in Collier County. We employee over 1,700 staff to operate all our programs.

• Over 78% of our eligible centers are accredited by NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children).

• Our current annual budget is over $47 million, with funding from Migrant Head Start, Head Start, Early Head Start, Child Development Block Grant (State of Florida - Office of Early Learning), Department of Education, Department of Health – USDA, State Department of Education, United Ways, local grants and private donations.

• Our partnership with Florida agriculture is long-standing and unique.

• Our mission stated simply is to open doors to opportunities – for children, families and our staff.